Elizabeth Irwin's SUPPORT Comes to A.R.T. New York This Month

A workshop production of Support written by Elizabeth Irwin (My Mañana Comes), directed by Kate Bergstrom (Is Edward Snowden Single?), and produced by Erin Daley and Elizabeth Irwin with support from On The Verge Repertory Theater will begin previews April 26, 2023 with an opening night set for May 4, 2023 for a limited run through May 20, 2023.

Support was developed by Irwin as a member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages and was selected for the Ojai Playwrights Conference for the 2021 season where she collaborated with director Nikkole Salter and dramaturg Jeff Liu (Memorial).

Support was inspired by Irwin's experiences as a survivor of domestic violence seeking help in the aftermath of her trauma. As she made her way through both the legal system and the resources available for survivors, she kept coming back to the question of whether all this wasn't just a bandaid and when any of it would stop: "I started to look at the bigger picture - what in our society enables domestic/intimate partner violence? How do we stop looking at fixing the problem after and instead look at what is woven into our society that allows it?"

The production will feature Dan Lin (King of the Yees, Goodman Theatre), Nancy Ma (Memorial, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre), Erin Anderson (Sleep No More, The McKittrick Hotel), Sharon Hope (for all the women who thought they were Mad, Soho Rep), McKensi Scy Pascall (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, New Works Theater), Claudia McCoy (Let the Right One In, Showtime) and Siercia O'Brien (terrace play, site specific).

The play will be presented as a site-specific production in the conference room of ART - NY, deepening the audience experience as they journey with this support group. "We want them to feel the 'afterthought' nature of the support and attention our society puts on this issue - what better way to do that then to put them right in an actual, overused conference room with the women?" asks Irwin.

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